This was the first of ten pubs that Roy, Jen and I visited yesterday as part of our little expedition of Norfolk hospitality venues. There’s a reason for the pub selection which relates to them being in a past Woodforde’s Ale Trail book, but it’s all a bit too complex to explain here.
The venue first opened in around the 1770s, so this is another of those Norfolk country pubs which has some considerable heritage. It was known as the Goat for over 200 years, but then the name was changed to the Huntsman in 1984. As with many pubs, it went through a number of brewery ownerships, going from Youngs & Co to Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs, then Bullards and then Watney Mann. It was then taken over by Eastern Hotels and then Enterprise Inns bought it and ruined it, leaving it closed for several years. It’s now one of the growing number of pubs in Norfolk which is owned by Marcus Pearcy. The former skittle alley that was here, noted many times in newspapers, has though long gone.
There was some excitement, although not for the then landlord John Newton, when in August 1905 a local lad called Frank Reeley wanted a beer. As he was already very drunk, the request for a beer was refused. Reeley was thrown out and then he sat outside for a while contemplating life. After some contemplation, he smashed the windows of the pub and caused 5 shillings of damage. His sister went to court to defend Frank, noting that he had now joined the army and so couldn’t attend. The court was obviously not entirely pleased with him as he was fined £1 and had to pay a similar amount in damages.
Back in March 1918, when people were perhaps a little more focused on other things, a case was brought against the pub by the police for serving at 11:52 in the morning on one day and 11:55 on another day. I’m assuming that their licenseable hours were from 12:00, as the bench just rejected the complaints of the police and there was a conversation about the timing of clocks. I’d suggest that this showed some considerable pettiness from the local police, although the landlord Walter Samuel Read had only taken over in the previous year and maybe there were other issues.
I’m genuinely not sure how Marcus Pearcy makes venues such as this work financially given that there was a substantial sum spent on the refurbishment and it felt very well staffed for relatively few customers when we were there. But, whatever he’s doing is obviously working and it’s a huge contribution that he’s made to the community by ensuring that the pub has been able to reopen. This one must have been very close to permanent closure, especially as there’s an excellent nearby Good Beer Guide listed pub, the Shoulder of Mutton.
There were four real ales, all of them visible are Greene King and so I have no interest in those. There was a fourth from Lacons which Roy ordered, but they went to check if there was a problem with the cask. When they returned to pour my half it was murky with a fair amount of sediment going on, with my best guess being that they knocked the cask whilst checking it. Either way, it was both under-poured and not really going to be pleasant to drink, but they didn’t query the return of it.
I switched instead to a Guinness and this was the most expensive of the ten pubs that we visited in the day, so the pricing is generally towards the higher end of the scale. I’m not sure that there was a two part pour and the choice of glassware is sub-optimal, but it tasted fine.
On the beer availability, I’m not sure why a free house is so closely linked with Greene King and they’re replicating the offer that a tied house would have. The keg range was a bit generic as well with the Hawkstone beer arrangement, but if that’s what the customers want, who am I to argue?
We weren’t ordering food, but here’s the menu and the dishes going out looked good and well presented. The pricing here isn’t pushing a bit towards the higher end, but not by much given the current cost base that they must have.
The staff in the pub were all keen and enthusiastic, so there was a friendly welcome and they were always helpful even when I was quibbling about the beer. I’m pleased to note that there were no further quibbles during the next nine pubs that we visited. The venue was also clean, tidy and well presented, there’s clearly been a lot of money invested here.
This is a photo I took in May 2020 when Nathan and I were meandering around the area. It all looks a little forlorn back then, so credit is definitely deserved for the reopening of this pub in what are trying times for country pubs. There must have been some challenges to that, but the pub felt like a real community venue and it’s employing several people locally which must be a real bonus to the area.